Day2Day - Take Five Ordinary Beauty

A few days ago I joined a lovely little group on Flick called Day2Day - Take Five Ordinary Beauty. The group is dedicated to the beauty of ordinary things, a concept I am very interested in myself. As an artist, I see the beauty in everything (or at least try to), and therefore look forward to participating in this group in future weeks. So here's my first five days:

I love painting, and often feel that the paint palette can become an artwork in itself. An idea which inspired Monday's shot:



Lying back on the sofa in my boyfriend's games room, I noticed the interesting patterns created by the old lampshade on the ceiling. Hence Tuesday's photo:



I took Wednesday's photo for the simple fact that I love my bed (I'm quite lazy). I've been wanting this beautiful item for months, and my man finally bought it for us last weekend:



The fourth day, Thursday, is nothing more conceptual than ornaments in our living room:



Friday was another lazy day, and I thought my sparkly new slippers and favourite black PJ bottoms symbolised that quite well:



There's been no real visual theme to these first 5 days, but I look forward to a few themed weeks :) Thank you to Abiban for starting this rather interesting group!

Sneddoniart

I have a new shop for my paintings. Find it at sneddoniart.etsy.com

I currently have paintings for sale - some are mini canvases, some are larger pieces. I will soon have ACEOs and more for sale, so watch this space:

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade Sneddoniart.etsy.com

My DaWanda art shop still exists, but it'll be the Etsy shop that gets updated most often.

Sneddonia Designs at The Starkeeper Part 3 - The End

Sadly the beautiful shop to which I gave some of my creations has had to close. Which is of course bad news. However, I like to try and turn the negative into positive, and there is another way to look at this. The things that they once had (seen on the right, hung on one of my tree sculptures) can now be made available to you via Etsy. Yays :) Starting with my Repurposeful Suncatcher, which I've blogged about previously, here. Click below for the listing:

Chaos

A couple of days ago, I received a message on Flickr from someone called aniuszka. As she said to me,

"hello,

my name is ania and i´m doing a research about chaos on the desk. i would describe myself as a very messy and chaotic person. in my diploma work i´m dealing with the topic how to handle chaos in an effective way, but without getting neat.
i saw your chaotic desk picture on flickr and would like to ask you for help. i would be very happy you could answer me these quetions. it would help me a lot!"

At first I wasn't sure how to take this. Does my workspace look that chaotic? Well, yes, of course it does :) I'm glad she contacted me, because it is a subject that interests me. As a very messy person, I am fascinated by tidy people's homes, and how on earth they keep it that way. Tidy people, however, aren't hoarders like me. I can't throw anything away! As a result of this, I am frequently looking for things and just not finding them. This is of course the worst place to be in a workspace. Anyway, he's her questions and my answers:

1. is your chaos a problem for you or do you handle it well?

Most of the time it is a problem to be honest! Although I like to think that creativity is born from chaos, I imagine the opposite is often true. I don't believe in all the rules of Feng Shui, but I do believe in the basic idea that energy can flow better when there is less clutter. To look at mess can be quite stressful and claustrophobic. If my home was tidier, I know I would be a calmer person.

2. why does your chaos break out?

The simple fact that I own way too much stuff! I'm a hoarder, and, like most people who hoard things, I'm always thinking that all this stuff could be used for something. Being creative doesn't help there - I'm always thinking I could make something from it all. I try to live by a waste not want not philosophy, but that just means that some of my studio resembles a landfill! It's not that the chaos breaks out, it's more like it never gets reined in.

3. is there something you always know where it is, something you´re never searching for? and is there something you´re always looking for? if yes why?

Yes to both. The items that I use the most are always where I can find them. For example, I keep my paints and brushes on my sideboard, and my beads in a box under the window, right next to where I use those things. Other items also have their place and they always get put back there. However, it often seems hard to find those items that I don't use so much. The solution, of course, would be to have a place for everything, rather than just a place for some things.

4. how do you find the things you´re looking for? have you got any strategies or methods? or do you know any alternative search-for-method?

I agree with the saying "A place for everything and everything in its place." even if I don't yet follow that philosophy. That would be the best method, as I wouldn't have to search for things at all. At the moment though, the best way to find something seems to be retracing my steps. Where was I when I last used the thing? Where might I have stored it last time I tidied?

5. could you imagine something that helps you finding what you´re searching for?

The aforementioned "place for everything" philosophy would be the most help to me.

So I have been inspired to organise my studio. It's a long overdue task.

Repurposeful Jewellery

I love using reclaimed materials in my work. I take the bus up to Stourbridge and scour the second-hand shops for old jewellery to repurpose into new.



You can therefore expect to find reused chain, beads, and other found materials in many of my items. Search repurposed in my Etsy shop for a few of those, for example: